I’m already feeling fear in the pit of my stomach about the Senate in 2020
There are various imperiled GOP seats in the Senate up for re-election (or defeat) in 2020.
Losing the Senate would be a nightmare for anyone wanting to stop the left from gaining the upper hand. There isn’t a whole lot the Democrats can do in the House without the Senate, although they will try (and succeed) to do some damage. But with the Senate as well as the House, Democrats can pass a lot of bills and most importantly block any federal or SCOTUS judicial appointments, even if Trump continues as president.
Of course, if he’s president, he can veto the bills. But if he’s not president and a Democrat wins that office as well as the Senate, then nothing will stop the leftist juggernaut, and the forces in charge will be more hard left than anything we’ve seen in power in this country before.
I cannot understand how so many people who are not as leftist as the current Democratic crop of candidates would be willing to vote for them. Actually, I can understand it, considering the constant, unremitting, many-years-long, pervasive, and overwhelming orchestration between the press and the Democratic Party to claim that Trump is the Second Coming of Hitler.
What I absolutely cannot understand is why people on the right would abandon a senator such as Susan Collins of Maine as being insufficiently conservative for their tastes. Such people live in a dreamworld and will facilitate the rise to power of what they profess to hate.
You are not the only one that feels this way. It would be a disaster of Biblical proportions.
Health Care
Taxes
Retirement Funds
Fracking
China
Iran
Russia
The Border
Ah, but we can understand. All of us who have been here long enough remember posts that were along the lines of “We lost because we’re not conservative enough” and “I’m voting for no-hope 3rd party candidate X/I’m not voting at all because the Republican candidate is not ideologically pure enough for me.”
With the radicalism of the Left, every election from now on will be a “Flight 93” election. I will repeat my prediction of the Left’s first 100 days after gaining control of the House and at least 50 Senate seats:
1. nuke the Senate filibuster
2. pack the Supreme Court with Leftists
3. Amnesty the 10’s of millions of illegals in the country and open the border to millions more.
4. register the newly minted citizens as Democrats.
5. Pass a nationwide ballot harvesting law allowing Democrat operatives to go door to door to collect vote by mail ballots from the new Democrats, fill them in for them, and turn them in to be counted.
Once they have cemented their power in the next mid-term election they will
6. Pass a law to “buy-back” i.e confiscate all firearms in non-government hands
7. Institute a China style “social credit” system with the help Google and Facebook to keep the population under their thumb.
And that is the optimistic scenario 🙂
If they never lose, they never learn and that’s how you eventually wind up with someone like Donald Trump as President.
I mean, look at the NeverTrumpers. Two of the top three leading candidates for the Democratic nomination are a self-professed socialist and a Democrat who has all but totally embraced a pure socialist policy agenda. Yet they’re STILL attacking Trump 100 times more than all the Democratic candidates put together.
For any system to work you have to LET IT WORK.
edit: Control of the presidency, House and 50 senate seats of course
KyndyllG:
I remember it well. I’ve been fighting that battle as long as I’ve been blogging.
I mean, look at the NeverTrumpers. Two of the top three leading candidates for the Democratic nomination are a self-professed socialist and a Democrat who has all but totally embraced a pure socialist policy agenda. Yet they’re STILL attacking Trump 100 times more than all the Democratic candidates put together.
I think we face real problems next year. The swing voters seem to regard controversy as a sign of wrongdoing, and its the swing voters we need to win over. That having been said, David Brooks, David Frum, David French, Jonah Goldberg, Allahputz, Patrick Frey, Jennifer Rubin, George Will, and Mona Charen won’t sway five votes outside their own households.
GOP senator Johnny Isakson just announced he is quitting at the end of this year. From the WSJ:
TommyJay:
He quit due to illness, I believe.
The election situation for who will replace him will depend in part on whether a strong candidate is appointed to replace him.
They probably don’t really believe that. He just threatens their government filled rice bowl when he talks of liberating the thrall class from professional redistributivists, and restoring the rule of law to this polity.
More people work for government than in manufacturing, according to a number of counts. Why would not large numbers of those people, some of whom, as I have seen, strove to get into those jobs as if their lives depended on it (and for some it certainly was the case that it was the only way they could find themselves tolerated and employed) not want others to pay their salaries? It’s what they aimed for since they found out that as an adult they had to have a job of some kind.
Thus, the so-called “liberals” in this country are just voting their personal interests; or what they imagine to be their interests: which are to have someone else pay for their lives, and to then conveniently check out of it with a doctor provided injection to the neck when they have had enough. ‘Yum yum all done .. belch … thanks for the ride … Bye! …’
Neo, et. al.,
Granted that November 2020 is a long way off in political terms and anything could happen, this Daily Beast article may be some cause for early and very, very cautious optimism:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-sound-alarm-trump-is-carpet-bombing-us-in-key-battlegrounds
It’s hard to go against the perceived public mood, but we must also remember that the public mood is set by institutions that are overwhelmingly in league with the Democrat party, even, as recent reports show, the supposedly economic and politically neutral Federal Reserve. We have seen recurring instances of the fact that such doomsaying is oftentimes only wishful Progressive thinking.
Maybe now you will agree with what i said ten years ago as to what will the outcome be? and why? just curious… there could never have been any other outcome given the actions of the armchair armies…
Note on the comparative numbers I reported.
The general comparison I repeated was for “manufacturing”.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows unadjusted figures for goods producing industries in July as 21,453,000 prox.
The difference between total employment and private employment being in the neighborhood of 20 million.
Statista dot com reports on the other hand that ” In 2018, about 7.42 million Americans worked in government or other public administration jobs”.
How they arrived at their figure is behind a pay wall.
IMO, if the economy does not tank and Trump avoids a new, hot military engagement, he will win in 2020. The GOP senate should squeek by with a slim majority or at least hold onto 50 seats. In the house there are new democrats who won seats in districts that djt won in 2016, they must be nervous. Plus donations to
I don’t think there is a “progressive” apocalypse on the event horizon.
Two things.
1. The Democrat nominee, no matter who it is, will run on a platform of higher taxes, more regulation, open borders, fighting climate change, and weak foreign policy. A platform that is a dream for Trump to run against. No one that I know of has ever won the Presidency while promising higher taxes.
2. Trump will constantly remind people that a Democrat controlled House has done nothing to help improve the lot of working Americans, while he has. The Democrat controlled House has lead the resistance to any improvement at the border and has failed to pass the USMCA. He will argue that he needs a GOP House and Senate in order to keep taxes low, negotiate good trade deals, grow jobs, secure the border, and maintain a strong military and foreign policy. Those voters with an open mind will hear that message, I believe.
88% of the GOP support Trump. He has larger support in the black and Latino communities than any GOP candidate in recent times. There are many Democrats who are socially liberal but still fiscally sane. They will be persuadable with the Dem candidate (whoever it is) being so far left.
I’m not losing any sleep over the issue at this point. If the economy is I the tank next summer, then I’ll start worrying.
You already bought your ticket, if you are and of age U.S. Citizen and able to vote, now get your popcorn and take your seat for the next ride of the century or your life-time or some other sort of dooms-day prediction. We have been on a down hill ride in a rickety truck with bad brakes since the mid 1960’s. For years I have seen predictions that it is over for the Republicans, they just destroyed themselves, they will never be in control again, etc.
However it seems to me this ride of our life is a rollercoaster ride, sometimes real fast downhill and sometimes a little slow down to catch our breath and the good thing about being old is knowing that before too many years it will be our turn to get off. I am extremely uncertain if anyone has ever been in control of this stuff and one side of me is very much a capitalist however the other side of me thinks the super-rich have become too super-rich with too much control in the leadership of both parties.
This time around by hook or crook, who can trust machines that vote for you, and who knows what kind of strange last minute 20 year old tapes they have of Trump grabbing some kind or person by the what’s-it to release in the final weeks this time around? A good deal of our population is made up of overaged fat kids with no idea how to improve their lives without the help of the government bailing them out and taking care of their basic needs in case their parents kick them out of the basement.
As I eat my popcorn I am amazed we made it this far and I do hope and pray we have enough people who don’t respond to polls but vote to turn this big old ship on around, we have slowed down and made some improvement but we are still rough waters. May our Lord Bless Us and Help Us as we Christians often say.
J.J.:
I agree on all points.
I would add that President Trump has a sense of humor, something utterly absent in all those Democrats . . . except for Biden, who tries, but always flubs the punch line.
In your mind’s eye, can you imagine any of the Dems as POTUS?
I can imagine, not happily, Michelle Obama as POTUS.
I still say it’s a possibility if someone does not emerge from the pack as a strong candidate who can beat Trump.
“There are various imperiled GOP seats in the Senate up for re-election (or defeat) in 2020.” neo
“The most competitive races will be in Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and North Carolina,… To be safe, Republicans can afford to lose two seats out of the four. Rick Moran
Even if the Republicans lose all four, they will still possess enough votes in the Senate to support any veto by Trump. So even in the minority, they could derail any democrat efforts.
But like parker, I don’t see the democrats having much of a chance. Unless… the GOP fails to run viable candidates who fail to repeatedly bludgeon the dems over their extremism. PAC ads will be critical, they have to incessantly expose the dems extremism.
Lots of Establishment folk think Trump will win if the economy is doing fine.
That’s why they’re talking up recession.
I’m getting afraid the Fed is willing to hurt America and go into recession rather than do its job for the economy — because they don’t want to “enable” Trump.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-28/member-elite-bill-dudley-could-open-can-worms-quite-staggering
A former Fed official says the Fed should accept trade war damage to the economy, because otherwise it enables Trump.
The economy is extremely complex, and not fully controllable by neither the President, the Fed, nor the gov’t. Still, there are goals the Fed is mandated to strive for with its actions (price stability & employment). The Fed is supposed to strive for these goals no matter what the President or Congress is doing.
Trump HAS to depend on others doing their job in order to implement any strategy. Trump Derangement Syndrome in the Fed is really scary.
On my trip to America I heard, from friends: “Trump is Hitler”. “Trump is creepy”. “Trump is a racist”. Dems emotionally hate Reps, and thus look to label Trump in a way that allows them to avoid intelligent argument.
Dem domination of colleges and “intellectual culture”, including their long term discrimination against Reps, is making America stoop lower, and hunch down, and soon we’ll be needing canes. Just like with individuals suffering from computer neck.
We need free speech to get thinkers free to think their own thoughts. But America’s college grads are losing that, and culture is losing that. And politics is downstream of culture.
Michelle won’t run. She and Barack just bought that place on Martha’s Vineyard.
Here in Michigan John James is again running for Senate, this time against a much more vulnerable Democrat incumbent in Gary Peters. He’s a very charismatic conservative African American West Point grad/combat veteran with an MBA who is running a family business here in Detroit.
James seems to have learned a lot from his previous run against Debbie Stabenow, and he’s already off to a great start. I think this one could flip to the R column.
No matter the outcome in 2020 Americans will get the government they vote for and they will deserve it. Probably the worst outcome for leftists would be for them to get to be in charge. They will suffer at least as much as and probably more than the rest of us will. We know well the art of self-reliance and are well prepared and armed for it.
Michelle won’t run. She and Barack just bought that place on Martha’s Vineyard.
Cornhead: It will be an interesting test of their political commitment. It’s a question of how hard-core they are as leftists rather than opportunists.
After Obama was elected in 2008 I had my doubts as to his stamina to serve a full-term or two. But he did and part of his secret was being a pretty laid-back president, who seemed to keep it to a 40-hour gig.
I doubt Democrats would care much — nudge, nudge, wink, wink — if President Michelle-O spent most of her time in Martha’s Vineyard planning deep strategy, while her staff and the Democratic leadership made the pedestrian stuff happen and Barack-O made the real-behind-the-scenes decisions.
In fact I suspect that would be an ideal scenario for most Democrats, especially if it was the price for unseating Trump.
Great moments of female empowerment in the D-Party history:
* Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Edith, basically ran the country for over a year after Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919.
* George Wallace’s wife, Lurleen, was Governor of Alabama for over a year after George Wallace couldn’t run because of term limits. Sadly, she died of cancer. Her husband knew of her diagnosis but didn’t tell her when she ran for office.
BTW this Michelle idea is not mine. Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh are discussing it seriously. Love ’em or hate ’em, they are both quite savvy in their ways and for them to both converge strikes me as … very interesting.
Moore is desperate because he sees no hope in the clown car candidates and Trump must be defeated. Limbaugh sees a good angle and argues that Barack Obama wants back in but the couple won’t risk it unless Michelle is a lock to win.
In this election cycle Barack Obama is “the dog who didn’t bark.” Or at least hasn’t publicly.
We do know Obama is meeting, greeting and organizing behind the scenes. We do know he has an outsized notion of his historical importance and that importance is suffering mammoth hammer blows from the Donald. This can’t sit well with the Messiah.
We also know if Obama threw his weight unreservedly behind Biden, Biden would be the D-candidate period. But Obama has not done so, even though his word counts with Democrats, as well as a large number of independents.
I can only believe Obama is waiting for an opportune moment to back someone more to his liking than Biden, but it doesn’t seem to be anyone currently scooched into the clown car.
Dots … line … draw.
Alternatively, the upcoming election could be an opportunity to get more Trump supporting senators into office. Remaking the Republican party in his image. Miracles do happen!
I agree with the points made by Parker and JJ. Nevertheless, I see Trump as a short respite from the effects of the ‘long march through the institutions’. Like many of the Boomer generation I was a liberal with a heart who’s brain kicked in during my mid thirties. But the follow on generations have been much more thoroughly indoctrinated and I don’t hold out much hope for their brains starting to work – at any age.
Sooner or later we are going to see a leftist majority get elected. It will be interesting then to see if there is enough of the Founder’s Spirit left in this country to force an Article V Convention or if we just go straight to secession. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. If all goes well, I probably have 25 to 30 years left so I think I will live to see this conflict play out.
Praying for America!
Have no fear …
View Bill Whittle and have a great laugh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G32azoM2hIY
The embassy was moved to Jerusalem, the Iran deal was cancelled, the media were poked and pushed back against instead of being kowtowed to.
It was worth the decades long wait and it’s been fun. If they gain the upper hand and rain down destruction, I shall float above on a cloud of blissful memory.
Obviously, we all fear what would happen with a complete Democratic takeover. But I think the odds are against. In fact, I think the most likely scenario is 4 more years of what we have now. We shouldn’t be complacent, nor should we panic. Also, the polls are pretty meaningless at this point, and there are lots of signposts pointing in the right direction right now. Economy/employment, enthusiasm of the base, no wars, etc. Fight the fight with optimism, not fear. 2020 is very winnable.
So, another blue wave?
But at least they will confiscate guns from the public at large.
And that will be as far as they go, they promise.
Susan Collins acted heroically to stop the destruction of Kavanaugh’s candidacy for SCOTUS. That was a full-out effort by the left. She stood in the breach.
I can only believe those who complain about her now are Dem shills, or idiots. She needs our support now.
If that agenda is passed, the crystal clear options are leave and take the American idea with you (leave can include going to a region which goes sanctuary against communism such as NW,east of the Cascades), declare once again why a people must throw off the ties the bind, suffer under the regime until it becomes intolerable again.
What other options?
Which one is more realistic?
* Woodrow Wilson’s wife, Edith, basically ran the country for over a year after Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919.
His wife and his doctor were gatekeepers and the pretense was that they were delivering messages from him. The degree to which cabinet secretaries were actually doing what she told them he wanted would require some unusually granular history of the government in that 18 months span of time.
* George Wallace’s wife, Lurleen, was Governor of Alabama for over a year after George Wallace couldn’t run because of term limits. Sadly, she died of cancer. Her husband knew of her diagnosis but didn’t tell her when she ran for office.
It was the usual practice prior to about 1972 that a cancer diagnosis once made was reported to a proximate family member, not the patient directly, and reported to the patient at the discretion of family. No clue why this was done this way, as it required systematic lying and evasion on the part of physicians and surgeons. What was bizarre is that Wallace told members of his staff but not her. It leaked to her three years later and only at that time was a treatment regimen devised for her. She was aware in 1966 she was ill and was under treatment. Wallace persistently lied to the public (and perhaps to himself) about her condition in 1967 and 1968. It’s possible she’d have died anyway, but one has to suspect that she might have survived if treatment had begun earlier.
Supposedly, Lurleen had her own ideas on a couple of issues but otherwise did what he told her to do. She was a vocational housewife and sorely out of place behind the Governor’s chair. Her successor as Governor wasn’t interested in what George Wallace wanted at that point.
Isakson is retiring. That puts his seat at risk in a special election in 2020, to hold the seat until its 2022 regular election. Stacy Abrams is licking her ample chops, not necessarily for herself, but her voter registration and such will be amped up in Georgia with both Senate seats up this year.
I believe you are misreading the news – by reading it. Any news that gives Democrats an advantage in the senate exists for that purpose and none other. The so-called advantage, in my opinion is not real. The media will always play every election as if it’s a tight horse-race, after all, that’s how they make money; election night is a big pay out for them.
The further the Democrats move left, the more desperate and dangerous they become and it is glaringly obvious now (open borders, expanded sanctuary cities, free stuff for everyone except white males).
And sure, the average bobble-head is going to nod and say the proper hosannas so as not to upset the mob, but come election time, they will vote for the devil they know. This time more than any other.
If you consider the trajectory of American governance and historical record the rise and fall of nation’s, a happy ending is unlikely, you may not be interested but history is interested in you
There are currently 53 Republican Senators. Alabama is a good opportunity for a pickup, but Roy Moore seems determined to run again, and Mo Brooks is not running for some reason.
I suspect McSally in Arizona is a lost seat.
In Colorado, Cory Gardner is running against popular governor Hickenlooper. There is lots of precedence for Republican Senators losing their seats to a popular former governor, like Jeanne Shaheen took out Kelly Ayotte in 2016.
I think Iowa is safe, as well as Texas, and crucially Maine.
North Carolina should be safe as well.
I worry that in Georgia there are two seats up, and some people might just choose one of each party.
“In Colorado, Cory Gardner is running against popular governor Hickenlooper.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/08/would-john-hickenlooper-dominate-the-colorado-senate-race/
Short answer: not necessarily. Gardner is popular everywhere outside of Downtown Denver.
I was more interested in this development among the Democrats:
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/politics/6-women-candidates-in-colorados-2020-senate-race-urge-dscc-to-rescind-hickenlooper-endorsement
PS Please note that the Democrats champion every possible kind of “equality” except “equality under the law for our operatives in the government.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/six-colorado-women-candidates-ask-senate-democrats-to-rescind-hickenlooper-endorsement
“Before entering the state-wide race, Hickenlooper said he did not think he was “cut out” for the job. The other candidates criticized him for not wanting to embrace “progressive values” out of fear it would reelect President Trump.”
Let’s hope the DSCC listens to them!